Crime World

Retired garda detective Eddie Naugton spent the last 16 years of his career working on the Sandra Collins case. He remembers all the details and who was investigated. He recalls how few days after Sandra went missing, a local plasterer called Martin Earley dropped into the garda station to inquire how the search was going. Suspicions are raised about this married man and why he’s so interested in...

On 5th December 2000 Ann O’Grady rings the Collins family to tell them Sandra has failed to return home after being out the night before. A major search is launched, covering miles of the surrounding countryside. Lifeboats comb the nearby waters, but there’s no sign of Sandra, apart from her dark pink coloured fleece jacket, which mysteriously turns up on the pier five days after she goes missing....

Sandra visits home every Sunday evening to see her family, however, they know little about her day-to-day existence in Killala. They are shocked when she reveals her pregnancy in the late 90s but are also completely supportive. Sandra makes the difficult decision to give her baby daughter up for adoption. The Collins family are deeply saddened by the move but understand it. A short time later, the...

Hailed as one of the oldest settlements in Ireland, Killala has a long and chequered history. St Patrick is rumoured to have brought a dead woman back to life in the centre of the village, while a French general landed there with more than 1,000 troops to kick off the 1798 Rebellion against English rule. In the late 80s, Ann O’Grady gets a small council flat on Courthouse Street in the village and...

Despite early tragedy and straitened circumstances, the Collins family enjoy a loving and stable childhood in the townland of Fotish, near Crossmolina.  They may have little in the way of material wealth, but the six children are doted on by their parents, and two aunts, Bridie and Ann. However, when Ann develops a painful degenerative condition, and her marriage breaks up, one of the Collins...

While clearing out their aunt and uncle’s house in Liverpool, the Collins family find a tape recording of their eldest sister, Sandra, reading out a poem she learned in school.  It has been more than two decades since they last heard her voice. The 28-year-old disappeared on a bitterly cold winter’s night in 2000 from Killala, a fishing village on Mayo’s north coast.  For years her famil...

The disappearance of Sandra Collins remains one of the most frustrating murder cases on the books of An Garda Síochána. Aged 28, she was pregnant and planning an abortion when she disappeared on a bitterly cold December night in 2000 from the fishing village of Killala in County Mayo. Ten years later, her case was upgraded to a murder inquiry and a subsequent trial heard she had been having a rela...

Three men have been arrested and charged for their involvement in the murder of Robbie Lawlor. Who are the suspects, and why are they the only people before the courts? This episode of Double Cross: The Murder of Robbie Lawlor was originally released in January 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Police in Northern Ireland assemble a list of twenty people under investigation for the murder of Robbie Lawlor. While some of the names are very familiar, others are not. This episode of Double Cross: The Murder of Robbie Lawlor was originally released in January 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robbie Lawlor's time in Belfast is short. In the aftermath of his death, who is in the frame for his murder? This episode of Double Cross: The Murder of Robbie Lawlor was originally released in January 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After the murder of Keane Mulready-Woods, Robbie Lawlor heads to Belfast, and a whole new world of trouble. This episode of Double Cross: The Murder of Robbie Lawlor was originally released in January 2025. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robbie Lawlor's response to the taunting of the teenagers who stole his gym bag could not have been predicted—the murder of Keane Mulready-Woods shocked the world. This episode of Double Cross: The Murder of Robbie Lawlor was originally released in December 2024. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Robbie Lawlor’s involvement in the burgeoning Drogheda feud sparks fear amongst the gardaí, while his erratic and violent behaviour terrifies those close to him.  This episode of Double Cross: The Murder of Robbie Lawlor was originally released in December 2024. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How did Robbie Lawlor earn his fearsome reputation as a cold-blooded killer? Nicola Tallant looks at his early crimes, and the ruthless murders that made his name. This episode of Double Cross: The Murder of Robbie Lawlor was originally released in November 2024. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Robbie Lawlor was murdered outside a house in the Ardoyne area of Belfast in April 2020, reporters were left with more questions than answers. What was one of Ireland’s most feared criminals doing in the north? Why had he crossed the border? Who had the audacity to arrange for him to be shot while up there? This episode of Double Cross: The Murder of Robbie Lawlor was originally released in N...

The murder of Robbie Lawlor in Belfast in April 2020 is sure to be one of the biggest gangland stories of the decade. In an eight part podcast series called Double Cross, Crime World investigated just what happened in the run up to and aftermath of the broad daylight assassination of Ireland’s most wanted. As we run the series over the coming week, Nicola talks to Niall Donald as we update our lis...

Staring down decades in prison, Bomber attempts a final gamble by orchestrating a fake weapons surrender from behind bars to trick the authorities into granting him a lighter sentence.  The deception backfires spectacularly when compromised encrypted messages unmask his lies, resulting in additional years of jail time and dragging his own son and family into the ruins of his collapsed empire....

A seemingly trivial pink stun gun found atop a kitchen cupboard provides the legal hook to pull Bomber from his life of luxury and lock him behind bars while investigators build their massive narcotics case.  The untouchable persona of the cartel boss finally shatters during a high-stakes interrogation, where the sheer weight of the evidence causes him to physically collapse as the reality of...

As Bomber waits in the shadows of his English mansion, a single forgotten logistics document from an Irish raid allows the National Crime Agency to bridge the gap between his legitimate front and his billion-euro drug empire.  Meticulous digital forensics begin to peel back the layers of his encrypted secrecy, exposing “The Gaffer” as the cold CEO of a transnational narcotics machine that law...

Bomber’s empire begins to unravel, as an innocuous scrap of paper found in a raid of a weapons-filled industrial unit in Dublin gives international law enforcement a thread to follow in their investigations. Meanwhile, a lavish marriage ceremony in Dubai attracts a lot of attention. The Science of Fear: The Bloody Reign of Thomas 'Bomber' Kavanagh was originally released as a subscriber-only serie...

The criminal underworld is shattered when gunmen armed with AK-47s storm a Dublin hotel weigh-in, leaving Bomber’s brother-in-law dead and igniting a “psychotic” revenge feud that turns the city into a war zone. Forced out of the shadows, Bomber stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Daniel Kinahan at a military-style funeral, a public show of defiance that finally earns him and the gang the undivided a...

In the “champagne years” of the international drug trade, Bomber emerges as a global power-broker, helping Daniel Kinahan forge a lethal “Super Cartel” alliance with Dutch and Italian kingpins to dominate the European cocaine market.  Amidst a backdrop of first-class flights and fortified mansions, he earns the nickname “Santa” for his flash displays of wealth, even as murder and violence und...

In the quiet Staffordshire town of Tamworth, Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh established a deceptive front as a car dealer and built a sophisticated, international logistics hub for the Kinahan organisation. Utilising “Trojan horse” concealments in industrial machinery to smuggle millions in narcotics, he maintained absolute control through a cold “science of fear” that terrorised subordinates and ensure...

Rising through the ranks of a drug-fuelled Dublin in the 1990s, Kavanagh weaponised fear and forged a deadly alliance with the notorious Byrne crime dynasty to dominate the city’s exploding cocaine market. As he became the historic first target of the Criminal Assets Bureau, a campaign of savage witness intimidation and extreme violence eventually forced Bomber to flee Ireland and expand his opera...

Behind the mask of a suburban dad in the English Midlands, Thomas ‘Bomber’ Kavanagh reigned as the brutal “European CEO” of the billion-euro Kinahan cartel, orchestrating international drug shipments from his fortified mansion.  Our new series chronicles his bloody rise and dramatic downfall, beginning in the Ipswich courtroom where authorities dismantled his empire, stripping away the luxury...